


Furlough

by Albion19



Category: Castle Rock (TV), Stephen King - Fandom
Genre: F/M, First Meetings, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-09
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-06-24 12:42:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15630900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Albion19/pseuds/Albion19
Summary: What happened after the Kid, sans clothes, finds Jackie on the bed?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Previously called Two Days.

Jackie looked down from the pocket knife and froze.

A naked man was staring at her.

“Oh Jesus!” she sat up, knife falling to her lap. The young man continued to stare, eyes huge in a gaunt face. He did not excuse himself, blush or hide. He was very tall and thin, almost hairless except for a happy trail leading to his cock, which was stiffening. Heart racing she laughed. Her stomach felt fizzy and her skin prickled. She pointed at the clothes at the foot of the bed and clutched the pocket knife with the other.

“Uh…Hi? Molly didn’t say she was having a guest over. You are a guest right? Not some skinny squatter or something? No offence” she rambled, keeping her eyes trained to his, a nervous grin stretching her mouth. He frowned.

“I’m here for two days.” He held up two slender fingers. His voice was very soft. He clutched his left elbow and looked at a pile of dirty clothes at the foot of the bed.

“You should probably get dressed. I mean I should go,” she started to get up but the guy nodded and turned around, walking back towards an old bathroom.

_Nice ass._

Her mother, when she was pissed off, was fond of saying she had too much of the Torrance gene in her. Jackie was proud of that.

_It’ll get you in trouble Diane._

_Yeah, if I’m lucky._

She could see the guy’s lanky shadow, who she guessed was that Shawshank kid judging from the prison greys, getting dressed. He moved slow and deliberate. Satisfied that she didn’t have to test how sharp his switchblade was she shrugged off her coat and dropped it to the side. She lay back down, hammering heart slowing.

“Where are you going in two days?”

“…Juniper Hill Asylum,” again the same gentle, ill used voice.

“Ooh man, legendary! There was a woman who lived in Castle Rock who was an inmate. She and another woman sliced each other up over a dog. That was before the fire in that weird shop. I’ve wanted to visit that place since I was six years old.” She sat up as he moved back towards her. He wore tan coloured pants, a dark Henley and a thick coat. He was cute, for a future psychiatric inmate. 

He looked down at his sock covered feet. “Shoes.”

“There’s plastic bags over there with boots in them. Present from your lawyer?” she asked, watching as he silently picked up the bag and then sat on the bed beside her. He pulled the boots on, winced and then pulled them off, dropping them by her coat. He pulled another pair out, trying them on. Satisfied with the fit he attempted to tie them.

Jackie, feeling hypnotised, watched him struggling with the laces. His long, slim fingers formed bows and then rubbed them lose. She looked at his face set in concentration and took pity on him.

“I’ll do it,” she got on her knees before him. The kid sat up before their fingers could touch, keeping his hands on his knees. Tucking her hair behind her ear she got to work. “Don’t worry I was twelve before I could do this. Dyspraxia.” She started to recite the poem her dad would tell her.

“ _Over, under, around and through,_ _  
Meet Mr. Bunny Rabbit, pull and through.”_

She sat back on her hunches and smiled. He stared at the loops and then slowly back at her.

“Thank you,” his eyes roved over her hair and then slowly back to her eyes. Just as slowly he leaned forward, a puzzled look on his face.

“What?” she smiled, her tummy doing that pleasurable flip again. The guy was locked in a cage for god knows how long and on his way to a mad house. She had seen him in his birthday suit, not exactly the meeting she imagined if she had the chance to talk to Shawshank’s infamous prisoner. She could burn up from the excitement inside her. His face tilted.

“You’re quiet,” he said with a strange relief and sat back.

Jackie laughed and stood up, dusting off her pants. “Molly says the same thing. Think you both need your hearing checked.” She moved to the doughnuts she left on the window seal and took her half eaten one out of the bag. She offered it to him.

“Ever had one of these before?”

He slowly shook his head but did not take it. 

“I brushed my teeth this morning. Promise.”

This got the slightest curve of his lips in response. She shrugged and stuffed the rest into her mouth. He watched her in fascination as she licked her fingers.

“I’m Jackie by the way. Introductions usually come  _way_  before seeing each other naked. I guess you skipped that step.”

He blinked, no indication of embarrassment. For all she knew this could be the first time he had worn clothes. She imagined him huddled naked in the dark and felt a pang of pity again. He stared out of the dirty windows, the eerie orange light glinting in his dark blonde hair. It was raining and the forest fires still raged.

“You wanna go for a ride? I’ve got a taxi but I won’t charge you. Not this time,” she smirked and offered a hand to help him up. He stared at her fingers and then at her. His expression was deeply grave.

“Shouldn’t touch you.”

Her hand wavered. “Oh. Like no skin contact?”

He nodded, looking even more pitiful. He was very tall and for all his thinness there was a strength running through those muscles. He was all knees and cheekbones. Edges that had never been touched. She moved forward and slipped her hand around his wrist, thick sleeve between them. He stiffened.

“This okay?” he looked at her fingers and then nodded. He let himself be tugged up to his feet, wrist still in her grasp.

“You’re a…taxi driver?” he struggled to get the words out.

“Yeah, but not the De Niro kind. That’s only on special occasions,” amused at his clueless face she lead him away from the bed, picking up the blade as she did. At the top of the stairs she slipped it into his coat pocket, standing close. He inhaled.

“…Make friends,” he whispered to himself and then followed her down.

*

_Coda_

“He spends an hour with me and tries to jump off a building.” Jackie leaned her forehead against the table, Molly fluttering behind her like a dazed moth. She had given the kid her last Oxy.

“It’s not like that at all, trust me. He just has a lot on his mind…He liked you.”

“I could tell,” she sat up with a tired smirk. Molly stared at her in confusion before she suddenly gasped, hand over her mouth.

“You saw him naked!?”

“Not on purpose. Did you just get a nice  _big_ mental picture?” she grinned as Molly shook her head and picked up her handbag.

“Good night Jackie.”

“Night-night,” she said, tired and watched Molly leave, the bell tinkling behind her. “Sweet dreams…”


	2. Chapter 2

There was someone lying in the middle of the road.

Jackie slowed to a stop. Pine trees stood tall and imposing either side. A few miles away they were charred ash and kindle. A fine rain fell as she got out, her stomach tightening. The person wore grey sweats and did not move.

“Hey? You alive?”

She stopped a foot away, thoughts racing. She had heard that Juniper Hill was on fire, the place where her naked friend had gone the day before. She had also heard that the dangerously insane were now loose and everyone should stay clear. Jackie, already hopeful that she had found an escapee, leaned down when the man suddenly flipped over.

“Gimme your car!”

“Woah shit,” she scrabbled back, hands out as the short man jumped to his feet. One side of his body was damp with the rain. He must have been lying there for some time. Small blue eyes flicked to the _Chariot_ behind them.

“Got a ride!” he yelled and suddenly another person emerged from the trees. He also wore Juniper Hill greys and was grinning. He clapped the short guy on the shoulder.

“Told you it would work!”

“I’m cold.”

“Quite complaining.”

“Who’s complaining? Just stating a fact.”

The man who came out of trees was young, bald and looked mean. He leered at her. “Give this loser your coat.”

_Oh fuck._

“Uh, sure…” she backed up, and the men followed until she bumped into the grill of the truck. She edged sideways but the mean guy moved with her, smiling. Jackie smiled in return. “So you escaped? That’s cool! With the fire and everything.”

His eyes narrowed. “What do you know about the fire?”

“Oh she knows,” the short man moaned.

“Nothing! I don’t know anything. Just saying it’s totally cool. Everything is cool,” she said as evenly as possible, still smiling. Did she look crazy? Likely. She was in good company.

Short guy shook his head. “Just dump her and take the car!”

Baldy snapped. “Don’t tell me what to do shit for brains!” he left Jackie and looked into the passenger window. “Where’s the keys?”

“It’s thumbprint operated,” she blurted, wagging her thumb and both guys paused, considering it. It was stupid, yes, but she had worked hard to get _The Chariot_ up and running. Short guy snorted and Baldly narrowed his eyes at her.

“Bullshit! If it is Blondie, we’ll just take it,” he produced something from his pocket and Jackie’s stomach fell. It was a sharped piece of white plastic, possibly a spoon at some point.

“Okaay guys, just chill, okay? I’m a taxi driver. I can drive you wherever you want?”

Short guy looked at the side of the truck and his eyes widened in awe. “ _Sweet Chariot_ …Chariots of Fire?”

Ever since Jackie could remember there had been a small person living in her mouth, a blabbermouth who had no concept of a filter or sense of fear. Thumbprint operated car? Classic blabbermouth. Sometimes it came to her aid but mostly it just got her into trouble.

She swallowed hard and balled her fists but blabbermouth would not be subdued.

“Yes! It’s a _special_ taxi. See? So, as the designated driver, only I can drive it.”

Baldly, who did not seem as awed as his pyro friend, rolled his eyes.

“Girl, shut up. We don’t need you or your thumb,” he waved the shank before her face and Jackie moved back towards the treeline.

“You're right, you’re _totally_ right. Listen just think – hey! What you doing?!” she yelped. Pyro hovered a Bic lighter in the air under the branch of a fir tree. He looked like someone at a concert, swaying to some unknown sound. Baldy sighed.

“Fuck he’s annoying. Pete! Stop fucking around! You already made a big bonfire, like you wanted. There are people after us! I warned you any more bullshit and you’re on your own.”

Jackie slowly backed away as he argued with Pete, feet crunching in the pine until she bumped into something soft. She looked up and gasped. The Kid stood beside her, staring intensely at the escaped inmates.

Pyro Pete caught sight of The Kid and let out a low moan. “You, you, you,” his moan turned into a giggle as he broke a branch off the tree and lifted the lighter to the leaves. It smoked and suddenly caught alight.

“Don’t!” The bald guy and Jackie both shouted as Pete attempted to throw the burning branch into the open window of the truck. It hit the side door and cluttered to the ground. Jackie stepped forward but the Kid blocked her. He shook his head, staring deeply at her for a moment before looking back up.

Pete picked up the branch, which was now burning fiercely, and swung it at the bald guy. “You’re gonna leave me behind!”

“Put it down you crazy asshole!” Baldy yelled and Jackie could see fear in his eyes. Maybe Pyro Pete had set a few bald guys cooking before his stay at Juniper Hill and Baldy knew it.

Embers fluttered through the air, landing on Jackie’s face but she was engrossed as Pete suddenly screeched something and lunged at Baldly. He tried to crawl through the open window of the truck but Pete set his pant leg alight and he screamed, falling onto the road. He beat at his leg with one hand while trying to push Pete away with the other. Pete’s sweater was no longer wet, in fact it was starting to smoke.

“Oh shit,” Jackie breathed as Baldy jumped up, the back of his sweater on fire. He ran into the woods, screaming and cursing as Pete gave chase with his torch, his entire arm now alight. Jackie and The Kid stood and watched for a moment in silence as something suddenly blazed in the shadows of the forest and a high keening noise like a dog echoed in the distance. Then the shadows and trees swallowed up any more light or sound.

Jackie, who once had toyed with writing about a pyro, breathed out a long shaky breath.

“Holy shit. My legs are like rubber. That was insane,” she leaned against the Kid, who still stood before her, realising he had been effectively shielding her.  He was dressed in a thick plaid coat, white tee and dark pants. She walked around him and back to her truck, satisfied no other crazies were lurking in the woods. She opened the door, which had been unlocked the whole time, and sat behind the wheel. She sighed again, relieved.

“It’s okay baby, it’s okay,” she patted the steering wheel and took out a cigarette from the pack in her coat pocket and then looked around for a lighter. She laughed and turned to the Kid. He was stood in the same place.

“Waiting for them to come back? Think Pete would give me a light?” she laughed again, the reality of what had happened settling on her. “God that was crazy pants! He set the other guy on fire! Should I call the cops?” she looked back at the Kid for confirmation and he stared at her gravely.

“I escaped too.” His voice was as soft as she remembered. He stepped forward and she nodded.

“Right…” she looked at the burning embers around them winking out in the rain, cigarette hanging limply from her fingers. She didn’t really feel like a smoke. The Kid looked up the road, one shoulder hunched up more than usual. For all his height and dark past shrouded in secrets Jackie felt safe. If he hadn’t been there who knows what could have happened.

“I need to get home,” he said.

“And where’s that?” she asked, tucking her unused cig away. The Kid doleful eyes crinkled a little at the corners. It made him look older than he was.

“Just over a hill, a long way away.”

“Me too!” she smiled and he walked around the passenger side. He looked back at the forest, a faint smile disappearing. He didn't seem to care about the fire or the men. She wondered what a man like him did care about.

 

*

 

He wanted to go to the Deaver house, which made sense. He just broke out of an asylum, of course he’d need a lawyer. Jackie however would be heading for that far away hill.

“You know if you go back to Henry he’ll be obliged by the law to do the right thing? You’ll end up back in a cage. Juniper Hill is donzo so who knows where they’ll put you.”

The Kid said nothing for a moment, just watched the trees flicking past. “He’s the only one who can help me.”

“Okay but if you change your mind…” she switched on a playlist. Bon Iver started playing and the Kid turned to look at her.

“You’d help me?”

Jackie shrugged. “Why not? I didn’t think anything could top our first encounter but Juniper Hillers trying to shank me and then setting each other on fire is a winner. Not that you’re not impressive,” blabbermouth strikes again. She focused on the road, gripping the steering wheel.

“I forgot,” he said with a trace of amusement.

“What?”

“You.”

Jackie frowned at him and when he would not elaborate she waved her hand. “What about me?”

He tilted his head, as if deliberating what to say. He looked back at the road. “I had forgotten but it came back to me. Most of it.”

“Because of the cage?” she had avoided asking him too many questions before but this time she prodded with caution. “You don’t have to tell me. I don’t want to force you to climb a tree or something. Cause there’s no buildings to jump off,” she added and he gave her a heavy lidded stare.

“That wasn’t your fault. I was…”

“Overwhelmed?” She offered and he nodded. “That’s what Molly said. You’re like her, right? Perceptive?”

He shook his head. “Bad things happen around me.”

Jackie waged a finger in disagreement. “It was a _good_ thing you came along. Bad for them I guess but eh,” she shrugged again as they reached a curve in the road. The road hugged the Royal River. It was sluggish and dark.

“They didn’t hurt you?” he asked and Jackie shook her head. He was a lot more responsive than last time. “Good.”

“You didn’t answer my question. You said you remembered me?”

“Who was your first kiss with?” he asked suddenly and she lifted her brows and snorted. He hadn’t answer her question but she was so intrigued by him she did not care.

“Wow, first exhibitionism and now this. What’s next?” she teased him and she was pleased to see some colour in his pale cheeks. She hummed in thought. “Let’s see…Jack Merrill! God, that was in seventh grade! It was Christmas and that bitch Cindy kept daring me to wear this hat with mistletoe on it. _Everyone is doing it Diane_ , _are you frigid_ _Diane?_ ” she mimicked a baby voice with a look of disgust. “After school we’d hang out at the quarry you know? Now she knew I had a crush on Elliot – who fyi, is now a yuppie – so she made _sure_ she got to kiss him. So I kissed her wannabe boyfriend Jack as revenge. Not much of a revenge. It was freaking gross. Romance novels and sundry are fooling millions of the uninitiated into thinking it’s this sweet, non saliva exchange when really it’s two pieces of slimy meat battling for dominance.” She shivered in repressed revulsion at the memory and looked at the Kid. He was staring at her like she was the one who had just climbed out of a hole.

“What? You know it’s true.”

“Okay…”

“So who’s was yours with?” she demanded as they breached a hill overlooking Castle Rock. The sun shone through a hole in the clouds and made the town look almost picturesque. She parked at the side of the road. She wanted to watch and hear everything he had to say. The Kid, whose hair glinted gold in the light, looked like he was not going to divulge. Jackie lifted her eyebrows. "If you don't tell me I'll start talking about my senior prom date with Zalewski. May he rest in peace," she added.

“…Her name was Diane.”

“ _Really_?” she smiled, not quite believing it. “What a coincidence.”

“I guess…I can’t remember everything but her…she’s clear,” his eyes roved over her face before continuing. “This was during fifth grade. It was my birthday. I was ten. This was before I moved to Florida with my mom.” He swallowed, licking his lips. His voice croaked a little, from ill use. “I had been in love with her since I was like three, I think,” he smiled fondly and something inside Jackie flipped over. “She was a year older than me and lived across town but we both liked to visit The View. It was this really tall cliff that overlooked the town. It collapsed some years later, a landslide…a long time ago now, I guess.” That rang a bell but was forgotten when he carried on. “You weren’t really meant to climb it but we did. She liked to write up there and I liked to watch birds and carve.”

“A writer too huh?”

He nodded sincerely. “She wrote stories about herself, about the town. Once she wrote about me. She said she had a dream and wrote it down. She gave it to me that day, told me to read it when I got to Florida.”

“Did you?”

“Yeah. We were grown up. She was a successful writer and I was an anthropologist. I discovered a new species of bird and named it after her,” he smiled again and Jackie thought in that moment how fragile and beautiful he was and how handsome he must have been at full health. Fuck Lacy, she hoped his death hurt.

“So did you become a famous bird watcher?”

“No, I became a doctor.”

This stumped Jackie because he was utterly sincere. “Oh…Doctor _who_?” she asked and he chuckled softly. “Get it? Should have been a comedian but writing runs in the blood. So did other Diane become a mega bucks author? I hope the answer is yes.”

His smile faded and he looked at her with grief. “She published one book and become really successful…but then she died. She was 28.”

_My age._

“Oh shit, I’m sorry.” Whether he was telling the truth or not his grief was genuine. “What happened?”

“She had this _fan_. He killed her,” for the first time his voice laced with anger. Jackie was a loss for words, which was rare. She was not the best at comforting others. Should she pat his shoulder? Give him a hug? She remembered his request, more a warning, not to touch so she made a noise she hoped was sympathetic.

“Were you in touch after you moved?”

“We were pen-pals for a while but then we fell out of touch. We met again, before it happened,” he whispered. “I was staying at a hotel in New York. The Four Seasons.”

“Fancy.” To Jackie it sounded like he was remembering more detail as he spoke.

“She was there for a conference or something. It was just a chance meeting but…”

“You rekindled?”

“Yeah,” he gazed at her with longing and Jackie realised for all his gentle giant-ness he was a little crazy. Who wouldn’t be after what he had been through? Maybe this was like therapy for him.

“How long did it last?”

“Almost a year.”

“Shit,” she imagined one torrid night of passion but it seemed they had a committed relationship. “Living together and everything huh?”

He nodded and then rubbed the heels of his hands into his eyes. “It was a long time ago. I had forgotten her face.”

_My face?_

“What happened to the guy? The fan? What was his name?”

The Kid stared at her, his usual passive expression settling into place. He looked at Castle Rock, the sun back behind clouds. “He’s dead.”

Jackie studied him for a few seconds and then started the truck up. As Jackie drove them towards the Deaver house she wondered if the Kid would have said any of what he had confessed if she hadn’t told him her real name was Diane. She thought he hadn’t been listening.

As they came to a stop before the house Jackie smiled, sighing. “Home sweet home.”

“You should go home Jackie,” he said and she was surprised at the assertiveness in his voice.

“Why?”

“I was telling the truth about bad things happening around me. I can’t help it…but it’s true.”

“I’m fine. We’ve been together for two hours and I haven’t turned into a toad. Almost a Tiki torch, yes, but I’m still in control of all my faculties.”

The Kid looked up at the house, fingers on the truck handle. “I don’t think I’ll see you again. After tonight.”

“Heading for that hill far away? Wise choice,” she added when he nodded. For some reason her stomach sank at the prospect. He was the most interesting person she had ever met and he was headed to either another cage or if he was lucky a fugitive on the run. It made for some deeply riveting fiction but this was real. He was right, she would not see him again, she could feel it.

“We could go all Bonnie and Clyde? You, me and the Chariot. They got shot a zillion times but I’m sure we’ll have more luck.”

He did not smile, just continued to stare at her with solemn eyes. “Keep writing Jackie. Get way from this place.”

“I plan to.”

They fell into a silence, the mix now playing _Love you this Summer_ by the Big Black Delta. She remembered this was her getting freaky playlist. Not that it played much. She leaned forward, eyes on his lips but he moved back, slowly shaking his head.

“I can’t.”

“Right. Sorry,” her stomach twisted like a wet rag and she shook her head, looking away with a smile. She looked back, a joke on her tongue, when his lips met hers. It was a hesitant kiss, his lips warm and soft and for a moment she could hear wind blowing through trees and birds singing, the only sound in a quiet place. She was young and he was younger but still towered over her. He loved her with a complete pure absorption that only the young truly held, she could taste it on his tongue and the gentle touch of his hands on her face. He inhaled through his nose and the strange vision vanished.

The Kid sat back, breathing heavily but before she could say anything he opened the car door and got out. Jackie licked her lips, wondering if she was now cursed, as he seemed to fear and watched him climb slowly up the steps to the Deaver house and walk in.

He was right, she’d never see him again.


End file.
